Illinois Basketball: Illini find themselves back in the AP Top 25 poll
The new AP Top 25 has hit the presses and the Illinois basketball team is back in the mix.
It has been a while since the Illini have donned the top 25. But “a while” is all relative now. A while a couple of months ago would have been a half-decade. A while now is two weeks. Yes, this is the first time Illinois has been ranked since February 17. It has felt like an eternity.
The new AP Top 25 poll has Illinois checking in at No. 23. This comes after the Illini had a 3-0 week that featured them beating Nebraska on Monday, Northwestern on the road on Thursday and then finishing off with a victory over Indiana at home on Sunday.
This was a great three-game stretch that extends the Illinois winning-streak to four games after a rough four-game losing streak in the previous four contests. The Orange and Blue now sit at 20-9 overall and 12-6 in the Big Ten. We are also tied for the second-best record in the conference as well.
You would think being a top 25 team would roughly equate to a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, right? Some “experts” still think the Illini are going to be lower than that. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Illinois as a No. 8 seed in his updated bracket. We would be taking on No. 9 Virginia. That would be a miserable first-round matchup.
But let’s ignore what Lunardi says for right now. Illinois is back in the top 25. Their ranking will only get better if they can win their final two games of the season. We take on No. 19 Ohio State on the road this Thursday. The final game of the season is at home against No. 18 Iowa. These two should help Illinois crack the top 20 and maybe even the top 15 if we can win both games.
Next. 3 observations from the Illini win over Indiana. dark
Illinois is finally back in the top 25. It was a long two weeks. This program continues to rise, and they continue to gel. If we continue to play the way we are playing right now come March, then there is a possibility we could go all the way.